Tag Archives: Pakistan

Husband Claims Bounty Placed On Imprisoned Christian Asia Bibi

The husband of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani woman imprisoned on false charges of blasphemy, says that a bounty has been placed upon her head by Muslims who want her killed.

Ashiq Masih, who has been fighting for his wife’s freedom, told MailOnline that Muslim clerics have put a bounty on her head in case she is freed after a hearing later this month.

“The Maulvis [clerics] want her dead,” he told the MailOnline. “They have announced a prize of [98 to $4,915] for anyone who kills Asia. They have even declared that if the court acquits her they will ensure the death sentence stands.”

The family has been also the subject of threats of violence by Muslim groups.  They have been forced to move 15 times since Asia’s death sentence in 2010.  They only go out at night and cover their faces so they cannot be identified.

Ashiq said he misses his wife and wants her home.

“I really love her and miss her presence,’ he said. ‘I cannot sleep at night as I miss her. I miss her smile; I miss everything about her. She is my soul mate. I cannot see her in prison. It breaks my heart. Life has been non-existent without her.”

Groups worldwide have been calling for Bibi’s release from the false charges.

Pakistan Heat Wave Death Toll Skyrockets

The death toll from the heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan has skyrocketed in the last 24 hours.

Reported yesterday at close to 225 victims of the heat, the official toll now stands at over 650 people.  Morgue officials say they are overwhelmed by the number of bodies and that hospitals throughout the region have declared a state of emergency.

Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, the area’s largest hospital, reported treating over 3,000 patients in the last few days.  The city’s main morgue is over capacity.

Authorities have closed schools and even some government offices in an attempt to keep residents from going out in the lethal heat.

Saeed Mangnejo, senior provincial health official, told the Irish Independent newspaper that he expects the death toll to climb further in the next few days.

The wealthy in the city have been receiving tankers of water but the poor are having to go without fresh, cool water.

“This is how it is. No one cares for common poor man here,” Khadim Ali complained as he fanned his cousin, Shahad Ali, a 40-year-old vegetable vendor who collapsed in the heat.

The situation is further complicated for many Muslim residents as they cannot eat or drink during the daylight hours because of Ramadan.

Meterologists say a sea breeze will likely move into the region through the night bringing cooler temperatures.  A monsoon rain could also reach the city and bring relief.

The city’s electrical grid continues to fail as residents overwhelm the system with air conditioners and fans.

Heat Wave Kills 224 in Karachi

A record-shattering heat wave in Pakistan has left at least 224 people dead.

Officials in Karachi, the country’s largest city with 20 million residents, say that 224 people have been confirmed dead from heat related causes.  Hundreds more are being treated for heat stroke or other heat related illnesses.

“Hospitals across the city are overcrowded due to record numbers of patients suffering from heat stroke,” Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, the health minister for Sindh province, said. “The numbers are unprecedented but the situation is under control.”

Temperatures in the city on Saturday reached close to 113 degrees fahrenheit, the highest recorded temperature in the country in 15 years.  Sunday’s high was around 108.5 fahrenheit.  The city’s all time record is 117 degrees fahrenheit set in 1979.

Local media reported that 150 bodies were taken to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth.  The morgue usually receives 20 bodies a day.

Many of the country’s residents are Muslim, meaning they are observing Ramadan and not partaking of food and water during the daylight hours.  The city is also dealing with frequent power outages that cut off air conditioning and fans.

The heat wave comes after a wave last month in India left over 2,000 people dead.

Pakistan Islamic Clerics Fight To Keep Blasphemy Laws

Islamic clerics in Pakistan are complaining to government officials who are considering changes to the nation’s blasphemy laws.

A group of Muslims gathered at an event they called a “seminar for protection of the prophet’s dignity” and are calling for the legislators to stop adding the word “intention” to the law that many Muslims use to bully Christians.

“The new bill rejects all sayings by the ‘holy prophet,'” former Pakistani justice Mian Nazir Akhtar stated. “When it comes to the sanctity of the prophet, the implementation of all man-made laws become different. Those who insult him have no rights, including no right to live. There is no need for trial or hearings.”

Many Christians have been accused of blasphemy by Muslims in Pakistan for various reason including a desire by the Muslims to seize their property to punish them for their Christian faith.  Muslim mobs routinely attack Christians accused of blasphemy and kill them without any court trial.

Currently 40 people sit on Pakistan’s death row on accusations of blasphemy including Asia Bibi, jailed because she drank water from a well that Muslim women wanted to use.

“The blasphemy law on its face flatly violates both freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Worse still, Pakistan vigorously applies this law,”  Katrina Lantos Swett, the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said. “Moreover, the weight of this law falls disproportionately on members of religious minority communities, such as Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadis.

“In addition, enforcement of such laws emboldens religious extremist groups and their sympathizers to assault these minorities — as seen most recently when terrorists slaughtered Ismaili Muslims on a bus,” she continued. “And finally, Pakistan’s zealous enforcement of these laws is in contrast to the pronounced lack of zeal bringing to justice those responsible for such attacks.”

Some Muslim leaders have threatened a fatwa against those supporting the change to the law.

Pakistani Businessman Building 140 Foot High Cross

A Pakistani businessman is taking a bold, dangerous stance for Christ by building a 140-foot tall cross in Karachi.

Parvez Henry Gill wants to encourage his fellow Christians not to flee the country in the wake of intense persecution at the hands of Muslims.

Gill, a native of Karachi, describes himself as a property developer and owner of farmland.  He said that God came to him in a dream and told him to do “something good” for the people.

“I said, ‘I am going to build a big cross, higher than any in the world, in a Muslim country,’ ” said Gill, 58. “It will be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry-free.”

Gill believes the cross carries a message to the Christians of his city.

“God will protect you. Stay in your country. Don’t be afraid,” the businessman said, according to CBS.

While many religious leaders in Pakistan believe the cross will be seen as a way to encourage interfaith cooperation, former Pakistani ambassador to the U.K. Akbar Ahmed said some radicals will see the cross as a provocation.

“They will say this a challenge to Islam and that it can only be met by destruction,” Ahmed told HuffPost. “It’s a smaller group, but it’s the smaller groups that can inflict a lot of damage.”

While the cross is not the biggest in the world as the Great Cross in St. Augustine, Florida is 208 feet tall, it is still the biggest in a Muslim dominated country.

Health of Wrongfully Imprisoned Asia Bibi Failing

The health of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman wrongfully imprisoned in Pakistan on false charges of blasphemy, is quickly fading according to family members.

Bibi is having trouble walking and had been throwing up blood.

“When vomiting there is also shown traces of blood. Asia has difficulty feeding properly, while constant pain in the chest,” The Global Dispatch quoted the unnamed family source as saying. “Therefore it is necessary that Asia Bibi be submitted as soon as possible [for] a full medical checkup, including blood work.”

Bibi has been jailed after a group of Muslim women made false accusations of blasphemy after the Christian woman drank water from the same water supply.

Wilson Chowdhry of the British Pakistani Christian Foundation says that Bibi has been forced to cook her own food in a “dingy” cell for the last five years after attempts to poison her.

“Asia Bibi has been facing rapidly declining health for some time and we call on Christians to uphold her in their regular prayers,” Chowdhry said in a statement. “Asia continues to believe that God will release her from her captivity, however, the Supreme Court hearing date is proving hard to achieve. Many believe the delay is instigated by Pakistani authorities in an attempt to subvert justice through her early demise.”

The family’s visit was the first in months because Bibi’s family has been on the run due to death threats from Muslims.

Karachi Christian Church Threatened By Muslims

A gang of Muslims want to seize the property of a Christian church in Karachi, Pakistan and are threatening to file false charges of blasphemy against those in the church if they do not surrender the land.

The members of the Jerusalem Church have told the International Christian Concern they are receiving death threats from a Muslim gang known for seizing property from the poor and also for various murders.

One of the church’s pastors, Ilyas Masih, said that they have been threatened since May.

“These Muslims have been pressuring the church people not to play musical instruments and asked the church leaders to stop girls from singing with boys in the church,” Masih explained. “Several times they stopped and threatened the worshipers and pastors for going into church for prayers and harassed the women in the past.”

Muslims in Pakistan routinely use false accusations of blasphemy against Christians as a way to persecute them since it’s extremely difficult for Christians to defend themselves in court.

The members of the church have vowed to die before giving up the church to the Muslim mob.

Muslim Mob Attacks Christians In Lahore, Pakistan

A Muslim mob attacked Christians, including attempting to burn a church, after someone claimed a mentally ill man burned pages of the Koran.

Police had arrested Humayun Faisal, a mentally challenged Christian man, after some Muslim residents told police that Faisal had burned the Koran.  He was charged under a Pakistiani law that prohibits the desecration of the Koran.

“Many people gathered on the spot and some of them even tried to burn him alive, however, we saved him and handed him to the police,” one witness told the Express Tribune. “Later a charged mob reached the house of the accused and recorded their protest.”

The mob, chanting “allahu akbar”, looted the homes of 15 Christian families, forcing the Christian to flee out of fear of their lives.  The mob tried to burn St. Joseph’s Catholic basilica but police confronted the mob and dispersed them using tear gas.

“I immediately requested help from some Muslim leaders and local politicians,”  Archbishop Sebastian Shaw told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. “Thanks to their intervention, the police succeeded in dispersing the crowd by midnight. It is the first time the government has succeeded in acting in time to save both the people and their homes.”

Muslim is Pakistan’s official state religion and 97 percent of the country identifies as Muslim.

Anti-Terror Court Indicts 106 For Burning of Christian Couple in Pakistan

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has indicted 106 people in connection with the brutal murder of a Christian couple in November 2014.

The mob had falsely accused the couple of burning a Quran.

“The challan (charge-sheet) states that Maulvi Muhammad Hussain, Maulvi Arshad Baloch and Maulvi Noorul Hassan were involved in persistent provocative speeches against the couple which led to the assembly of 400 people as a mob who then burned Shama and Shahzad alive,” the Pakistan Daily Times reported .

“After the challan was presented at the hearing, the court also held Yousaf Gujjar, the owner of the brick kiln where the couple was beaten to death, responsible.”

Guijar had been angry that the couple had not repaid him money that he claimed the couple owned and set them up for blasphemy charges.  He placed a few pages of a Quran in their trash singed as if the book had been burned.

An official with the International Christian Concern said that the incident shows the danger Christians in Pakistan face every day.

“The brutal killing of Shahzad and Shama once again highlights the extreme danger of religious fanaticism that Christians in Pakistan face on a regular basis. The accusation of blasphemy can be used for any dispute and can often prove deadly as it did today, inciting a mob to brutally murder this young couple.”

Pakistani Boy Dies From Muslim Attack

A 15-year-old Pakistani Christian youth who was burned over 55% percent of body in an attack by Muslims has died.

We reported on the attack on Nouman Masih, who had been beaten and then burned by Muslim youths after he told them he was a Christian.  The Muslim youths had been on the way to Friday prayers when they found Nouman and attacked him.

Doctors treated Nouman with the best items they had available but the hospital did not have a burn ward to provide the specialized treatment needed for Nouman’s wounds.  The boy died around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

A spokesman for the British Pakistani Christian Association said that Nouman made a point to say he forgave his attackers before he died.

“He just said that he forgave them. That’s more like a Christian forgiveness, but he didn’t want his attackers to prevail and enact their crimes on anybody else. He was just being very magnanimous in a Christian way saying, ‘I have forgiven them but I want them to go through the justice system,'” BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry told the Christian Post.

“You can imagine what it was like for him to have kerosene poured on him and being set alight,” Chowdhry continued. “He was very vocal in the fact that he didn’t want that to happen to anyone else, especially at the moment when Christians are under some very extreme tension.”

The Muslim youth who killed Nouman have yet to be identified so local officials say they can do nothing until they find the attackers.